[ Carr/ A Tour through Holland Along the Right and Left Banks of the Rhine, to the South of Germany, in the Summer and Autumn of 1806 ]


Carr (1772 - 1832) was an English lawyer who gave up the law due to ill health and began to travel, soon becoming a prolific, if not particularly well-respected, travel writer. Many contemporary critics and reviewers found his books superficial and chatty, with little cultural substance.


This book was first published in 1807 (London and Philadelphia), and appears to have never been reprinted.


There is only one mention of Newfoundland dogs in Carr's travel narrative; it is reproduced almost verbatim in Captain Thomas Brown's Biographical Sketches and Authentic Anecdotes of Dogs (1829), which is also treated here at The Cultured Newf:


The Dutch are very fond of dogs. Our captain had a bitch and two puppies on board of a very peculiar breed, for which he expressed great attachment, and he was one day not a little amused at my telling him that at the commencement of the gallant action which took place between the Nymph, and Cleopatra in the last war, there was a large Newfoundland dog on board the former vessel, which, as soon as the firing began, ran from below deck in spite of every exertion of the men to keep him down, and climbing up into the main chains, there kept up a continual barking, and exhibited the most violent rage during the whole of the engagement. When the Cleopatra struck he was amongst the foremost to board her, and walked up and down her decks as if he participated in the glory of the victory obtained by the English. (6)





[ blank this frame ]

.a tour through holland